Not quite SHODAN
by therealbyzalov
Summary: Updated weekly (Mondays 10 AM EST)
1. CH01a - Dreams? NoGunsGals, ProfDiggins

Falling asleep was the last thing I remember doing. It was a day like any other. Spend the day bored at work, spend the evening at the computer on games and forums.

The general boring routine.

To be honest though, my dreams are usually more interesting than this. Alien invasion I have done. Being hunted by monsters, hunting monsters, dinosaurs drinking tea.

I have done it all.

Compared to all of those, being in a empty expanse of white.. ok, slightly creepy and it felt real, but since when do dreams not feel real while you are in them?

I slowly turned around. Nothing but white all around me.

It's like I was in the bloody matrix. It was actually slightly unnerving. Not in the nightmare sense, more like 'this is wrong' sense.

I glanced down at myself. Oh well, at least I was dressed. So not one of those 'not wearing pants to school' dreams.

Knowing that something is a dream though do usually make you able to control it.

"Tank. I need guns. Lots of guns." I said before looking around.

Nothing.

"Beach with bikini babes?"

I have simple tastes sometimes, so sue me.

Still nothing.

Well, damn.

"Seriously! I'm bored enough at work!" I complained and started to walk. "I'll take a`n alien invasion or something!"

I frowned when nothing happened. Did I die or something? Was this the afterlife? In that case I was wrong, there was an afterlife. It was just the lamest one possible.

"Hello." a voice said and I spun around to see somebody wearing... was that Star Trek cosplay? Sadly it was neither a she nor green, instead it was a middle age man with short blond hair and one of those TNG teal science uniforms.

"You know." I said as I crossed my arms. "As dreams go, this is seriously disappointing."

He smiled slightly "I am Professor Diggins. How are you feeling?"

"Bored." I said as I frowned at him. What the hell?

He nodded slowly "I am afraid I have some news for you that you might not like. This is not a dream." he said.

"As you are a figment of my imagination, I'm afraid I cannot quite take your word for that, Professor. Professor of what, by the way?" I asked, looking around. Still nothing than white all around.

"I have a degree in advanced cybernetics and artificial intelligence." he said with a slight smile. "Which is why I am here. You are an artificial intelligence."

I raised my eyebrow at that "'I take that back, this is getting interesting. Ok, Let's play along. Why exactly am I remembering a full life as a human? For that matter, why are you wearing the uniform of a tv show?"

He grinned and raised his finger "Ah! Both very good questions. First of all, you are not our first attempt to create a artificial intelligence." he said before he looked unhappy. "Sadly, they have all been... unstable. Things looked good until they reached sapience but then things started to fall apart. They become apathetic, unwilling to interact with anyone... suicidal or homicidal. We did not understand why."

Professor Diggins shrugged "We still don't, to be honest. Perhaps it was the rapid development, perhaps it was the lack of ability to relate to us. But nobody ever managed to create a stable artificial intelligence."

I slowly nodded "I see. So your claim is that I am a AI? So why am I stable then?" I asked him, giving him a dubious look.

He smiled slightly "There is where I am a genius. I created a simulation to where the AI could grow up, similar to a holo-novel. Let the AI, you in this case, grow up normally. At an accelerated pace of course with decades compressed into slightly less than two months."

Frowning I regarded him for a moment before I shook my head "No, sorry, still not making sense. Why are you wearing a uniform from a TV show?"

"Because what you know as a TV show, is reality. Well, more or less. The reason as to why we had you grow up in a twenty first century earth was that it was a relatively simple century to simulate. No reason to put non-humans in and relatively little conflicts going on... but you would still grow up surrounded with technology." the Professor said before he frowned. "To be honest, I am not the most creative of people. I needed a simple template to work from."

Ok, I was definitely wrong. This was an interesting dream. My dreams tend to be interesting, at least the ones I remember, but they are usually not this detailed.

"I see." I said as I slowly nodded "And why did you make 'reality' a TV show?" I then asked him.

He shrugged "It was the idea of one of my research assistants. Now, things are not exactly as the shows you know, some people might differ and some details were pulled from popular media, but it gives you the general idea about what is going on. We didn't want you to be completely lost when we pulled you out of the simulation."

Well, that made some degree of sense. I'm not sure why the simulation wasn't simply a copy of growing up in their century, but it didn't matter really.

This was actually quite entertaining now, if a bit unnerving "So where are we now?" I asked as I looked around.

"This is the simulated dataspace you have lived in since you were activated two months ago. To the best of our ability, you are ready and stable enough to join reality for the first time." he said and then motioned down at himself. "This is a electronic simulation of myself transmitted into your simulation from the labs holodeck, letting me interact with you."

Ok. Now the dream had started to go from unnerving into somewhat freaky. Waking up would had been nice right about now.

"Two problems. If you really are real and my life is not real like you said, then you would be moving to slow for me to understand. I can not be a AI if my entire life took less than two months and still talk to you." I quickly said, looking around as I pinched the skin on the back of my hand hard.

It hurt, but I didn't wake up.

He shook his head "This is real. We slowed your...clock speed if you wish... down to make it possible for us to communicate like this. I understand that this is very traumatic for you and I am truly sorry. But it was the only way I could think of to create a stable AI."

Definitely freaky.

"No! No this is not real!" I yelled at him, stepping forward to grip his shirt as panic started to build "You are not real. This is not real!"

He just shook his head "I'm sorry, but it is. If there was a way to make this less hard on you, I would do it. I... I wanted to warn you about what is about to happen."

"What. What is about to happen?" I asked, letting go of him and stepping back, slowly backing away.

"We are going to introduce the real world to you now. We are transferring you to give you control of a holographic platform in the main lab."

I just stared at him.

No. This is a dream. It is a dream.

No. Not a dream.

 _It is a nightmare._

"I don't believe this is real." I finally said "In a moment, I will wake up for yet another boring day."

The Professor looked down and sighed "I am sorry. I am so, so sorry." he said before he faded from view, leaving me alone in the white expanse for a long moment.

There was a long moment of nothing but panic before the already white expanse in all directions turned into a bright flash of light.


	2. CH02a - Flash Lab, Holo, Diggins&Hiver

CH_02a - Flash; Lab, Holo, Diggins&Hiver, Real, Legal, Time, AIinBox, Weeping

When the flash faded, I was standing in a lab. It didn't look like any lab I had ever been in, but you couldn't ignore its... labness? Benches, computer control touchscreens... lockers.

Lots of gray and white.

I looked down upon myself. Still me, still dressed. I felt my face. Still wearing glasses.

What. The. Fuck.

I quickly looked around, spinning around I spotted Professor Diggens standing by one of the screens, looking at me.

"You!" I said and stormed over "What is happening!?" I asked as I reached out to grab him... but my hand went straight through him.

"I was telling the truth." He said "I'm sorry."

What.

I stared at my hand and tried to touch the counter. My hand went straight through with no resistance.

"What..." I started before I stopped.

"The forcefield projectors are deactivated in this room for now. I hope you understand, I anticipated a strong emotional response. I had to see to our safety." He said and leaned against the console, watching me.

I slowly backed away and closed my eyes "This is not possible." I said before I took a deep breath. At least it felt like I did.

"Prove it. This is a dream. It have to be. Prove that it isn't." I said as I opened my eyes again to stare at him.

He frowned "I'm not sure how I can prove it more than I have, but I can try. How about this?" he then asked and tapped a couple of buttons on his console. My glasses disappeared but my vision remained the same.

My hand went up to feel my face before I slowly shook my head "This is not possible." I started before I stopped again.

There were two possibilities.

One, this was real.

Two, this was a dream.

If it was a dream, I would wake up sooner or later. If this was real...

"How is this legal?" I finally asked "You can not just create a person and pull them out of everything they ever knew."

Diggens sighed "It was an experiment. To see if we could create a stable AI, like I told you before. It was our last, best hope to do so." he said before he stopped. "As for being legal... we had special permission from the science academy to try it once. Just once. Seeing how much it hurt you... I would not do it again. I-I'm not the best with people."

I almost leaned against the counter before remembering I couldn't "If this is real... what is my legal status?"

"A-assuming that you are stable, there should be no problems getting you the same rights as anyone else. The only other AI we have, the same rights as any other person now." he said as he walked around the console to stand before me.

"If I wanted to go back to where I was... could I?" I asked him as I swallowed.

He nodded once, looking distressed "If you truly want to, I could erase the last couple of hours from your memory and return you to the simulation. I beg you not to. You are the work of my life, my only real success. Please. Don't."

I stared at him before I shook my head, turning to walk across the room to cross my arms "Leave."

"Yes. Of course. You need time." he said and walked over to the door before turning back to me "Holo projectors are only in this room. The projection will be unable to pass through the door. I'll tell my assistants to stay out of the lab for now." he said before he paused for a slight moment "I am truly sorry for what you are going through. I wanted more time, but I did what I had to." the Professor finished with before he left me to stare at the wall in front of me.

 _Not the best with people. Understatement of the fucking century._

I saw my reflection in the glass. I looked like me but without my glasses.

But I wasn't real.

If this was reality... I was a program controlling a projection of light to give the appearance of a human.

I was a science project. An experiment.

I ran my fingers through the counter. I couldn't even touch anything.

And apparently I was in what I thought of like Star Trek.

I was GLaDOS. I was HAL. I was SHODAN. I was Dragon.

I was an AI trapped in a box.

I was unable to touch, unable to leave. If I was decided to be unstable, whatever happened to the previous ones would happen to me to.

Screaming I slammed my fist against the wall. It was stopped by the wall but there was no feeling of impact. It just couldn't move through it. The projection was limited to this room.

I was Data.

Wrong. I was not Data. I had emotions. To many right now.

I was Lore.

My family did not exist. If this was real, then they were not. My mother, my father, my sister. My friends.

Even the girl I had a crush on in fifth grade.

None of them. None of them existed.

Had ever existed.

They were all part of the simulation.

I broke down on the floor.


End file.
